Choosing a Starter Pokemon: The Hoenn Region

In the world of Pokemon every young boy or girl starts out more or less equal -- that is to say without a Pokemon and about to set out on their great adventure. The first step on that journey is the selection of their first -- or starter -- Pokemon.

The Starter Pokemon come in three basic types -- Fire, Water, and Grass Types -- and when the new trainer receives them they are already leveled to Level 5, having one damage-dealing move, and one stat-changing move.

The trainer is offered their choice of one of the three Poke Balls by the Professor -- no matter which one they choose though, their rival will choose the other that has a type advantage against it, which slightly increases their chance, should the player make a mistake in their first battle with their rival, of them claiming an early victory.

In the Hoenn Region -- home to the games Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald -- Professor Birch offers the player a choice between the following three Started Pokemon:

The starters for Hoenn deviate from the standard makeup in that while they all begin as a single Type -- Water, Fire, and Grass -- as is the norm, both Torchic and Mudkip become dual-types with their first evolution. Mudkip becomes a Water/Ground Type when it evolves into Marshtomp, and Torchic becomes Fire/Fighting Type when it evolves into Combusken.

The change from single-type to dual-type for those two changes the nature of the choice of starter for these games in that

The Enduring Starter

For the vast majority of trainers the Pokemon that they choose as their starter has far more significance and value to them than simply being the first Pokemon that they use to capture their next Pokemon!

In fact it is estimated that around 90% of the players who are fans of the game tend to retain their Starter and use and evolve them as their main Pokemon and Team Leader for the entire adventure.

As noted above though, that first Pokemon is the key to the long chain of additional Pokemon that the player will encounter, battle, capture, and collect.

While the vast majority of the Pokemon you capture in the wild will end up residing in a Pokemon Storage Box in the Pokemon Center Network -- at least until you have become the League Champion and finally turn to the lengthy and challenging task of evolving and training them in order to complete your Pokedex -- your starter is very likely to be your best friend and preferred go-to Pokemon for the more important battles, when their type suits!

Choosing Your Starter

The first thing you need to focus upon is the following fact: There is NO wrong choices.

With Treecko stuck at a single Type (Grass) the advantages that Torchic and Mudkip have need to be examined before the choice is made.

With respect to Mudkip, the change to Water/Ground Type gives it both positive and negative elements through that evolution. The positive aspects are that the addition of Ground cancels out the weakness it would ordinarily face versus Electric-Types, while it enjoys a decided advantage versus Rock, Steel, and Poison Types.

Unfortunately it has a disadvantage versus Fire Type, and more disturbing is that it now has a massive disadvantage versus Grass-Type (to the tune of x4 weaknesses against it!).

Torchic may seem to have gained a major advantage being able to master Fire and Physical Fighting moves, but we must not forget that the mixture of Fire and Fighting is not actually a good one as it cancels out some of the advantages of both without gaining enough to make it a preferable mix.

Still though, the pairing does provide you with a more robust dependable team member, so if your style of play is more of the defensive/strategic style it may be the one to choose.

We now come back to Treecko -- who we initially discounted early on due to it remaining a single-type. That might have been the final word on the matter if not for a few late-evolutionary points that tend to tip the scales in its favor!

Once Treecko evolves into Sceptile it comes into its own in more than one way, and has turned into a very formidable damage dealer. First off, it can learn Pursuit, making it particularly effective versus Ghost Types, but even more significant it also has its own devastating natural in its Leaf Blade attack, but the bonus is its ability to learn Dragon Moves via TMs. In particular the move Dragon Claw.

So where does that leave us?

As we noted at the start of this section, there really is NO wrong choice. But in terms of making the best choice, this will largely depend upon your style of battle and the preferred strategy that you follow.

If you are a defensive sort who likes to be able to soak up damage, then Torchic is likely your best choice. If you are middle of the road, and you dabble in both offensive and defensive strategy, it would seem that Mudkip would be the way to go. Finally, if you are an aggressive battler and enjoy dishing it out, then Treecko is your man.

Of course this is all predicated upon the certainty that you will never allow your Pokemon -- Starter or standard -- to engage in a type-opposed battle! No, the entire point behind building a reliable and effective team is to always manage the battles and put the right Pokemon into play.

Still, you should now be confident in making the right choice (for you) having better understood the parameters.

For more info on starters and help completing your Pokemon game, check some of our free online strategy guides:

Um. Torchic is the "defensive sort"? He's more of the damage-dealing type really, his atk and sp.atk are insane and he has above-average speed, but he has sucky defensive capability. As for Treecko yep he deals some good damage and is also the fastest, but his sp.atk as Sceptile pales in comparison to Blaziken's. Swampert totally is the best bet and that's coming from a Blaziken guy XD But Blaziken can actually own both, have him learn Solarbeam to sweep swampert and any fire type move with a base damage above 50 can basically one shot Sceptile.

The best choice will always be Torchic because even if May takes Swampert, Blaziken's fighting types moves will be able to defeat it. Treeko has very good speed but it sucks in terms of HP. Swampert is nice but it's stats are way lower then Blaziken's. So, take my advice and get a Torchic. Oh and the four moves that will make your Blaziken unstoppable are Rock Tomb,Sky Uppercut, Double Kick and Flamethrower. I hope this was helpful.

Guys! The best of the best is Torchic -> Combusken -> Blaziken. Combusken/Blaziken can defeat Roxanne, Brawly (Combusken learns Peck at level 16, along with Double Kick), Wattson's Magnemite/Magneton, Norman, Sidney, and Glacia! It's really the best choice! With its attacks: Blaze Kick, DynamicPunch, Fire Punch (can be learned at Move Tutor), and Slash! Mudkip -> Marshtomp -> Swampert is also good, but it has a low Speed stat and a double weakness. Treecko and its evolution family is also okay, but being a one-type starter is not that okay.

In my opinion I think Treecko is the best,Because it has a lot of speed and great moves it can learn when it turns into Sceptile.I think Mudkip would be a tank just for defence and for moves too since it learns Ice Beam.Torchic is really really good for fighting but I still recommend Treecko

Its right all starter i good treecko if it evolve it will be good pokemon.why?because its speed i master!and torchic is a good choice to..its fighting and fire if it evole. so fire weak of ground and rock but ground and rock weak againts fighting.but it still weak againts psychic.finaly is mudkip i will learn cool move like all starter to.when mudkip evolve it type will be water and ground .ground is weak againts water but with water combined with water type it will be no problem ..but it still weak againts grass.. so choice the starter you want!.but treecko still weak againts fire!......

sceptile is ausome if it has ariel ace,solarbeam,earthquake and drgon clawswampert is ausome if it has blizzard, muddy water,earthquake,and protect blaziken is ausome if it has earthquake,ariel ace sky uppercut and blazekick

I actually considered treecko but I changed my mind and used mudkip. Srsly, treecko may be good in attacking, but sucks in hp. A lvl 5 treeko can only withstand 3-4 tackles from lvl 7 mudkip whereas a lvl 5 mudkip can wtihstand at least 5-6 tackles from lvl 7 torchic. On the other hand, lvl 5 torchic can withstand about 4 tackles from lvl 7 treecko. Mudkip can learn many cool moves! Like ice beam.

The other starters are lame cause they have weakness to types that have reall strong attacks while my fave Swampert has only weakness to Grass and doesnt really has strong grass type moves most are very weak even end game moves are tremendously weak in comparison Mudkip can easily take a Leaf Blade at least mine did survive 3

Really, any one of the three could help and harm you. Treecko/Grovyle/Sceptile has amazing speed, but really lacks in defense in comparison. Torchic/Combusken/Blaziken is brutal with physicality, but everything else is sort of mediocre. Mudkip/Marshtomp/Swampert can tank much better than the other two, but isn't very fast. So it's really all based on your statistical preference.

Swampert learns the best moves and is only weak to one type, which makes him the best... But torchic is super effective against the most gyms and half of the elite four. Treeko is fast... But that's it. However skitty is the best because she learns a fighting move to beat ice and dark elite four, and learns a dark move to beat ghost elite forum teach skitty ice beam for dragons and any thunderbolt for champion(if he is wallace)

First if im one of you i pick Treeko and you will get Tailow or ralts the you beat the 1 Gym Pick Aron to beat the 3rd Gym use tailow and ralts to beat 2nd Gym leader the lvl up all of you team mates and then battle the 3rd gym then pick betwen camerupt or ninetalis and get magneton or electrike and when slot all most full pick betwen flygon or salamence

I love going with Mudkip -->Swampert. Not only does the the Water-Ground typing make the Rustboro and Mauville Gyms easy pickins, but it can also learn Ice Beam, which is an incredibly powerful move especially for Dragon-trainer Drake and 4/5 of his pokemon.My usual moveset is Surf, Earthquake, Ice Beam and Dynamic Punch which gives it move advantages against Fire, Ground, Rock, Dragon, Flying, Grass, Electric, Poison, Steel, Normal, Ice, and Dark types.